The field of the invention is a wireless system, and more particularly, a wireless system for recording and stimulating.
Chronic pain is a debilitating health problem. The impacts of pain suffering are not only on individual's life quality but also on the family, society and the national economy. Several major approaches have been used to ease chronic pain, including surgical implantation of neurostimulators. Neurostimulation on the spinal cord or primary motor cortex delivers low levels of electrical signals directly to nerve fibers or neurons to affect the neuronal membrane excitability, in turn to suppress pain signals by opening and closing of ion channels. This form of therapy is attractive because it is selective for pain and has few side effects compared to chemical approaches. Therapeutic studies have shown when used on carefully selected chronic pain patients, neurostimulation could significantly improve pain relief and reduce use of narcotic medications.
Conventional stimulators are open-loop systems, where doctors can only obtain the results for pain management from patients' verbal feedback. Stimulating signals are programmed during device installation and cannot be modified after the patients leave the hospital. Further, tethered integration of neurorecorders and neurostimulators in a patient's body is not suitable for safe, long-term use because wired connections degrade over time. The present invention attempts to solve these problems, as well as others.